It’s hard to
believe it’s already the 4th year of our fundraising event. For
the past three years Former ECU football players have come back to play
in a charity basketball game at Minges Coliseum. Each year the
basketball game gets bigger and better and next month on April 8th we
will be coming together once again for the very worthy cause. The
basketball game is the major fund raiser for Future INC, and has
allowed us to do a lot for the children of Greenville.

It was in 2003 when Troy Smith came to me and said he wanted to start
and organization that would look after the underprivileged children of
the south Greenville area where he grew up. We decided to start
Future INC, and ask our former teammates to help raise money for the
cause. FUTURE, Incorporated is a nonprofit organization designed to
offer positive alternatives to “at risk” children in the West and South
Greenville Communities. Through mentoring, we provide our “kids”
with the opportunity to see beyond their circumstances and seek to
realize their dreams. Constant reassurance aimed at encouraging
their spirits and self-esteem has enabled our four-year-old program to
redirect some of the “lost” while driving others to maintain their
focus.

Last year’s proceeds enabled us to not only sponsor different “in-town”
functions for our “kids” and supplement the cost of some of their
school-related extracurricular activities but we also proudly escorted
40 of them to Greensboro, NC on a tour of North Carolina A&T State
University. The kids had a wonderful time and some of them had
never even considered the idea that they could go to college until that
day.

I have once again reached out to my former teammates and they will all
be back to help us raise money. You can look forward to seeing
such former ECU Football stars as Marcus Crandell, Danny Gonzalez,
Keith Stokes, Jerris McPhail, Larry Shannon, Jeff Kerr and many
more. If you have never come to the event, you have truly missed
a good time. The ECU pure gold dance team will perform and there
will be a 3 point shoot out and dunk contest at half – time.

We are still looking for sponsors and if you would like to be a sponsor
or make a contribution please contact me via email at
kmm050821@yahoo.com (Kevin Monroe) or call the radio station
252.317-1250. You can mail a donation to Troy Smith, 1035 Spring
Forest Road Ste. D-4, Greenville, North Carolina 27834. All
checks should be made payable to Future, INC.